Welcome to One-to-One Week 1! This week’s theme is Intentional Christianity! I seldom use the word “Christianity,” because I focus primarily on our relationship with Jesus Christ, but those who follow Jesus are known as Christians, and the “religion” of Christians is Christianity. I put “religion” in quotes, because in the deepest sense Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with the living God, through Jesus Christ. As we kick off One-to-One, I use the theme “Intentional Christianity” to indicate we are not talking about a casual pursuit of faith or the practice of a “religion.” We are talking about an intentional, step-by-step living out of our relationship with God, in the name of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. While we’ll be talking about God, the Father; Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and the Holy Spirit in depth during the course of One-to-One, I want to set forth this basic belief of Christianity: There is one God, who expresses Himself in three persons: Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit. As we move through the week, we’re going to address three primary aspects of Intentional Christianity: 1) What does it mean to be a Christian?; 2) The One Priority; and 3) The Accountability Factor. We’ll address each of these aspects on their own on during days 2-4, but right now let’s take a moment to define what each aspect is: The question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” takes into account the term Christian has been defined in so many different ways as to mean virtually anything or nothing. We are going to define it quite specifically as we will be using it in the year ahead. As Jesus’ followers, we want to be able to give people who ask us what it means to be a Christian a brief, clear answer. The One Priority is putting God first in our lives. We’ll consider the truth that God cannot be a “piece” of the “pie” of our lives, or one part of a “balanced” life. God is the foundation of our lives, and everything else builds on Him. The Accountability Factor reminds us unless we have someone who holds us accountable, we won’t grow as quickly in our relationship with Jesus as we might. The beauty of One-to-One is we have built in accountability as we check in with our mentor or the one we’re mentoring each week!

The theme Bible passage for week 1 is Matthew 22:37-40: Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV) 37Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV) (The reason the notation of the passage: “Matthew 22:37-40” is both before and after the actual verses is because the most common challenge to memorizing Bible verses is not the actual memorizing of the statements, but remembering where in the Bible the statements are found. I will pass along tips I’ve learned along the way throughout the year to help you learn and live more effectively as Jesus’ follower, and stating the passage notation before and after you say the passage is the first tip.) Jesus’ statements in Matthew 22:37-40 were a response to a Jewish religious leader asking Him what was the most important commandment in the law, which would have been the Law of Moses. Jesus’ answer included not only the most important commandment, but the second most important commandment as well. Jesus told us if we love God fully and love one another as we love ourselves, we will be fulfilling all the Law and the Prophets, or what we would call the Old Testament. Living as a follower of Jesus means at least loving God fully and loving one another. If we are being intentional about our Christianity, we will seek to love God fully and love one another. While the command is simple enough to understand, it is impossible to live consistently unless we are Jesus’ followers, or as Jesus would say unless we’re born again. While we’ll take specific time to talk about this tomorrow, let’s get it out in the open today: Jesus said we must be born again, and if we’re not we’ll never enter the Kingdom of God. That means those who are intentional about their Christianity, about their faith in Jesus, will be born again.

Your application for today is simple: Take a few minutes (or as long as it takes) to respond to this question: Have I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, and been born again? We’ll consider the ramifications of your answer to that question tomorrow.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Jesus to give me the life that is truly life. Show me how to live as one who has been born again, or to be born again if I’m not. This I pray in Jesus name. Amen. [Please note: throughout the year, the closing prayer will be written in the first person, so that each of us may pray it for ourselves.]